It was the Sunday afternoon Stechermania got very real, kind of like when you see a blogger go from “mother’s lower room dwelling” to the cockpit of an NHL team.

The legend of Stecher will grow, and flourish.

Especially here. Because not only was Stecher a compelling story today, scoring on a wonderful play, he called his shot.

(Of course he did).

“Right before we went out for the game, I looked at (Sven Baertschi), and said ‘I think I got one. I just hit the crossbar in warmup eight times,'” Stecher recalled.

“That’s what you do as a player in warmup. You throw it at the cross bar. I was on. I felt pretty good with my shot.”

Stecher also switched sticks before the third and spent much of that period demanding the puck, both with his stick and his lungs.

It was as confident as he’s played with the Canucks, which should be endlessly encouraging because earlier in the game he was on the ice for two goals against, and you could pin some blame on him for each, if you’re so inclined to rip a rookie being asked to play 21 minutes a night on this team’s top pairing.

“I’m building relationships, and I’m not going to be so timid around the veteran guys, realizing I’m part of this team and if I want to be here, I have to contribute,” Stecher said.

“If I’m open, I’m going to call for it and they’re going to give me the puck.”

Ya, can’t wait for more of that.

“It’s a good feeling,” he said.

The city nods in unison.

BEST PLAYER SOME THOUGHT WAS DONE

I generally refuse to believe teams have been flooding the Canucks phone line, hoping to unearth one of their top prospects in a lopsided trade.

This isn’t a video game league. Managers understand there is no way one of the worst teams in the league is going to cough up one of its best prospects for some sort of quick fix.

You can pick your own narrative, as to why the contrary is out there, but I tend to think the motivation for a team putting it out is along the lines of “Hey, trust us, we’re not that nuts.”

What I do believe, and know, is there are teams circling the Canucks trying to figure out what value players like Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen might have and what they would have to give up to get someone like Tanev.

The first two are types of players a team like the Canucks would end up moving, the last someone they may have to.

If you’re among those asking if Burrows can still play, you’ve been getting an emphatic yes in return. His last three games may have been his best three-game this calendar year.

He was as quick as I can remember him, at least in a couple of years, today. Rather impressively, he was on the ice for just one Dallas shot attempt.

He gave Baertschi and Horvat the kind of spark they’ve lacked. He ended the game with two assists and probably should have had a goal.

“More ice time and playing in the top nine, consistently with double digit minutes,” Burrows answered when asked what’s different.

He played (14:42) nearly three minutes more than what he averaged in October.

“It helps when I’m playing with Bo, because he’s so fast, and Baertch, because he’s so creative with the puck,” Burrows said.

“We’re finding ways to contribute, but we can’t be satisfied.”

Interestingly, the head coach basically cited Burrows leadership as the reason he’s looked good here.

“I think Burrows is good for a young line because he talks, and it kind of gets guys in the right place. He gets thoughts in their head.

“If they have a bad shift, he can talk them through it.

“Alex Burrows has been really good.”

Yes, yes he has.

You know what else helped that line?

That is quite the earth-changing departure for Willie. You wonder if it was another “recommendation” from the front office.

In fact, just the other day Linden was talking about Horvat being put into a offensive role.

It was in the second half of last season when the rumblings first started around town. Then, the rumour was owners had been pushing, or were about to, for the coach to be fired, and if they got their way, the president was going to step down.

Of course, if you do believe it, then you would conclude the president is the one who got his way.

It’s always interesting to see Sportsnet’s Headlines segment, notably in Vancouver because, as we know, ownership has reacted to the segment before, so they are watching it.

It’s also interesting this latest comes with some of us believing there is an internal tug-of-war ongoing about what exactly should be done this season with Jake Virtanen.

If you’re into connecting dots, there’s some good times to be had here.

BEST OF THE GOOD TIMES

Stecher didn’t just score, he freed up room by working the puck around Jamie Benn and essentially passed the puck to himself off, riding it up on the boards and around Benn’s stick.

Yes, Benn was actually trying to prevent a cross-ice pass to Henrik Sedin, so he didn’t get walked there. But he did open up all the room Stecher needed.

“I chipped it up off the ice in case he swooped with his stick. I wanted to get the puck over it. Even if he did get a stick on the puck on that play,

“I felt my body was going to be strong on his stick and I’d skate through his stick.”

And then we see his cerebral side, as he explains just how deep his thought process got at that split second moment.

“They were on the backside of a road trip, so I was thinking their legs might have been tired.

“I saw it as an opportunity to attack downhill and that’s what I did.”

How many hits like this would we have seen if Tryamkin was playing from game one?

All aboard the Tryamkin train.

BEST DO YOUR JOB

You think Burrows could score and then have that goal be disallowed and you’d be left without a conspiracy theory?

Of course not.

And investigate it we did.

What happened, Alex?

“I thought it was a goal. I felt I was pushing the puck. The puck was loose, I could see it the whole way.

“I was pushing the puck and the pad was behind it.”

It sure starts that way.

What did your teammates think?

“The boys on the bench looking at the replay, thought it was a goal too.”

So where did it go wrong?

“Someone said they didn’t have video replay here, in the penalty box, so they couldn’t judge it.

“The only decision was coming from Toronto.”

Did you really think a decision coming from Toronto could go Burrows way?

“They felt it wasn’t a goal.”

BEST EPIPHANY

It didn’t fully hit me until Willie laid it out.

Loui Eriksson will not make the Sedins better on this power play. Maybe with Team Sweden, but not with this coaching staff.

And that should hit the Canucks front office with as much reflection as Chappelle generated with his gripping SNL monologue last night.

It raises all sorts of questions in Vancouver, mostly because you can’t sign a 31-year-old winger to $6 million-a-year if he’s not going to be playing regularly with the Sedins on the power play.

I mean you can, but that winger better be one helluva a sniper if you’re expecting a reasonable return on investment.

He did score tonight. But how many can he get not playing with the twins?

What is he on PP1 and why isn’t he there?

Willie basically said he’s redundant.

If he’s not wrong, and this is the way it does go here, you’re left to question the plan.

Because, as of now, it looks as though the Canucks saw they were missing out on Lucic in free agency and someone swept a collection of half-sipped coffee cups off a desk and shouted:

“Who’s next? Who scored the most goals? Bring him to me!”

This is an interesting one. For Sweden Eriksson plays the high slot with the twins.

Can it work here?

Sutter hasn’t scored more than 3 pp goals in a season in seven years. He did get one today, which will proabably fuel Willie’s contention that Eriksson with the twins on PP1 will be, henceforth, a “once in a while” thing.

Once in a while?

BEST HANGING CURVEBALL

With Florida claiming Griffith, that means the #Canucks did not place a waiver claim on the young forward

The organization needs help wherever it can get it. Notably when it comes to offence. If they can get Griffith, and send Chaput down, then Virtanen has someone to play with and they have some offensive upside.

The Wild claimed Teemu Pulkkinen on waivers and got him to the minors and he’s put up six points in his first six games.

The PA Plan has been anxious to call out Stecher, and Hutton for that matter, and went for the Canucks rookie when he left Eaves wide open for a backdoor goal in the second.

As the PA Plan has it, Stecher should be in the minors and Larsen should be playing for this team. But, The Plan contends, the media dictated the decisions here and got “Their Guy” into the lineup and Larsen out.

It’s an interesting thesis, especially in a game Stecher was the second star. Oh, and Horvat was pretty good too.

Here is the goal in question which has the Plan calling for a Stecher demotion.

It doesn’t look great, and The PA Plan was all over it.

What was Stecher watchihng?

“It’s such a quick play. I was staring at the puck and when I turned I tried to close my gap, but the puck was already there.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have committed so much in the middle. Let Eagle come closer to me too and let Miller take the outside shot maybe.”

On that replay, when the camera pans centre ice, you can see how spread out the Canucks forwards are and Skille doesn’t recognize that the stretch pass sets up a Dallas 3-on-2.

Here you see Stecher shifting into the centre ice area, with Seguin in the middle of what was a 3-on-2

Seguin creates a huge problem for Stecher who needs to maintain coverage in the middle of the ice. He could close the back door play and cheat to his right but he would be surrendering a massive chunk of ice down the middle to Seguin.

“It is a hard play,” Stecher said.

Willie said: “Seguin is a high-end player. Stech knew he was there and he was going to turn but he didn’t think Seguin was going to throw it that quick.

“Seguin just made a great play.

“I want us to play hard and be aggressive. We’re going to make mistakes. We can live with some mistakes. We can’t live with the same mistakes.

“Stecher plays hard. Tanev is a big part of our team and Stecher has come in and played with Edler. And that’s a big role for a guy. He’s certainly exceeding our expectations.”

BEST REALITY CHECK

BEST STAT

In the past two games, Stecher has 10 shots on net and in this game nine shot attempts.

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